Sbrisolona · Torta Sbrisolona Mantovana
Lombardy · dolce · serves 12 · 75 min total · easy
The dolce of the Gonzaga court at Mantua, originally a peasant cake of three flours — wheat, corn and almond — that the Renaissance dukes refined with butter and sugar. The crumble texture is sacred: a sbrisolona must shatter when struck, never cut. Mantovani break it with a closed fist on the centre and serve the rubble in bowls. Keeps two weeks in a tin.
Ingredients
- 200 g 00 flour
- 200 g fine polenta (yellow cornmeal)
- 200 g whole skin-on almonds
- 200 g sugar
- 120 g cold butter, cubed
- 80 g lard (strutto), cold
- 2 yolks egg yolks
- 1 lemon lemon zest
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp grappa
- 1 pinch pinch of salt
Method
- Toast the almonds in a dry pan until fragrant. Coarsely chop two-thirds of them, leaving the rest whole.
- In a wide bowl, combine flour, polenta, sugar, salt, lemon zest, vanilla. Add chopped and whole almonds.
- Rub in the cold butter and lard with your fingertips to a coarse, sandy crumb — do not let it come together as a dough.
- Mix in the egg yolks and grappa, working with the fingertips only. The mixture should remain a loose, lumpy crumble — never knead.
- Butter a 26 cm round low-sided tin. Tip the crumble in and spread evenly — do not press flat. The whole point is irregularity.
- Scatter a few more whole almonds on top.
- Bake at 180°C (355°F) for 45–50 minutes — deep gold, crisp through. The smell of toasted almonds should fill the kitchen.
- Cool completely in the tin. Do not cut — the sbrisolona is broken by hand. Sbrisolare means to crumble.
- Serve with Vin Santo or zabaglione. Each piece looks like a shard of golden rubble.